A touchscreen is an electronic visual output display device that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term “touchscreen” generally refers to a person touching or contacting the display of a device using a finger or hand. Some touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a pen. A resistive touchscreen has two or more layers separated by a gap or other insulation, and pressing on the screen brings the two layers into contact or sufficiently close that the gap/insulative resistance is reduced to a point that can be sensed, thereby indicating where the user pressed the screen. These types of screens can be used with passive objects. Other screens use ultrasonic surface acoustic waves (SAWs), and interrupting the SAW with a finger or devices indicates where on the screen the user has pressed.
While there are other touchscreen technologies, one of the more common types of touchscreens uses capacitance. Because the human body can act as a conductor, physically touching such a screen with a conductive object, such as a human finger, changes the local capacitance. Such a touchscreen can be formed by a grid pattern of electrodes which, when energized, forms a grid pattern of capacitors, and reading all of the capacitors identifies where on the screen the capacitance has been effected, and thus where the display has been pressed. In another conventional construction, a layer can be energized and capacitance determined with reference to fixed references points, such as the four corners of a rectilinear display, whereby the point of touching is determined indirectly by measuring the (relative) capacitances from the various fixed points (such as at the corners).
At present, so-called “touch gloves” are gloves having a conductive portion affixed to a portion of the glove. For example, a patch of conductive material is adhered or sewn to a fingertip portion of the glove to allow the user to interact with a capacitive touchscreen.